


Pointe to Pointe

by GhostCwtch



Category: Black Widow (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Ballet, Gen, Natasha thinks about dancing, Post-Avengers (2012), introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 21:05:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2555654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostCwtch/pseuds/GhostCwtch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony Stark invites them all to live in the Tower, Natasha isn't sure until she sees a particular room on her floor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pointe to Pointe

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not super knowledgable about ballet, but this is more about Natasha and how I imagine she feels about her memories of being a ballet dancer.

The thing that a lot of people don't know about ballet, professional level ballet, is that a ballerina can go through a pair of shoes in a night during a show. The performance pounds all the strength and support out of the shoe and by the end, well. 

Accidents can happen if a dancer isn't paying attention to her connection with the floor. An injury is an easy reason for why so many girls vanished, they needed their remaining Black Widow candidates to remain cooperative after all.

For all that her memories of that time aren't real, Natasha knows the choreography and jumps, each plié and position. She knows what it is to stretch her endurance to the breaking point across the stage just as well as against an opponent in a fight, maybe better. It's not knowledge she shares lightly, not in the habit of revealing her passions, of trusting, despite the fact that it is one of the few things from her childhood that is not exactly a painful memory. She knows the smell of clean exertion, of resin worked into the satin performance shoe for added grip. She knows the feel of the bar and the count of the beat like a second heart thrumming in her veins. 

When she closes her eyes, she can go back there, be one of the dancers again, floating and elegant and happy despite the hard training, because of it. The memories given to her, implanted in her, changing her mind to a form able to move in society like she was born in it, instead of being this programmed doll.

It's not a passion that she shares, and it's a secret she thought well hidden until she moves into Stark Tower and finds that there is a full dance studio on her floor and boxes upon boxes of different brands of shoes for her to try until she finds a preference again. Looking them over, she thinks that there's enough there to last her an entire year of practicing, and this, more than anything, is what convinces her that Stark's invitation to stay is true.


End file.
